226: Completed! Dragon Shark Unmanned Boat!!!

Lu Shenwei frowned and said, "Either there's nothing going on, or everything piles up at once."

"Let's proceed with the design for the 88-style sniper grenade launcher like this: first, machine a few dozen barrels to test the quality."

There were still ten months left until the selection for the next year's All-Army Science and Technology Progress Award; there was plenty of time to catch up.

Ma Quanlin breathed a sigh of relief. "Finally, we don't have to rush the work. This period of time almost cost me my old life."

First, they were in a rush to retrofit bombers, then they had to step up production of the powered armor, and just as they were about to catch their breath, the R&D task for the sniper grenade launcher arrived.

"Uncle Ma, you can arrange for the traditional steel production department to take a break recently; we need to balance work and rest," Lu Shenwei said casually.

Ma Quanlin chuckled, "Even if you didn't say it, I would have brought it up to you. We've really been too busy lately."

"Take everyone to travel around the famous mountains and rivers of the motherland and relax properly," Lu Shenwei mused.

Ma Quanlin asked, "I'll arrange for a travel agency to take them, and I'll stay behind to help Xiao Zhou follow up on the Unmanned Boat R&D project."

"Zhou Cun is indeed excellent. The decision to have him and Uncle Wang swap projects back then was very wise," Lu Shenwei said.

The dismantling and reverse engineering of the An-225 were exceptionally complex; even with the system's assistance, it was crawling at a snail's pace.

Keeping in mind that good steel should be used on the blade, Lu Shenwei had only held the An-225 wreckage for less than two months before swapping the Unmanned Boat R&D project, which was under Wang Zizhong's charge, with the An-225 dismantling project, which was under Zhou Cun's charge.

As it turned out, Zhou Cun lived up to expectations and managed to crack the tough nut of Unmanned Boat R&D.

Lu Shenwei saw his efforts; in just over half a year of taking over the Unmanned Boat R&D, he had lost twenty jin.

Good comrades should be praised. That afternoon, Lu Shenwei called for Zhou Cun. "I'm planning to give you a one-level salary raise. What do you think?"

"Another raise? Didn't you just give me one before the new year?" Zhou Cun was quite surprised.

Although Director Lu kept emphasizing the rejuvenation of the cadre team, he himself was rising a bit too fast.

His current rank was only one level lower than Director Ma, with the status of a deputy factory director, and an annual salary of 800,000, the same as Wang Zizhong.

There was also a performance bonus at the end of the year, which would net him at least another 2 million.

An income of nearly 3 million a year was already terrifying for Zhou Cun, who came from an ordinary family.

Lu Shenwei waved his hand. "The annual salary of a big state-owned enterprise director is nearly one million. Our salary level needs to be maintained at three to four times theirs."

"Ah? If we pay that much, won't our labor costs be too high?" Zhou Cun frowned.

Lu Shenwei chuckled and explained, "Only with high wages and benefits can we attract better talent. Look at Xiao Zhao, who was almost rejected last time; his family dared to make a scene at gunpoint, wasn't it because of our wages and benefits?"

Lu Shenwei's simplest idea was that the workers' wages should be at least five times higher than those in state-owned units to demonstrate the advantages of the Julong Steel Factory.

As for those trash Experts saying that high wages are not conducive to unity, to hell with that!

If high wages are not conducive to unity, why the hell don't you take a pay cut yourself?

Such idiotic Experts should be put into a pig cage! Thrown into a cesspit!

"You're right. We in the real economy have it too tough, and most of our wages and benefits aren't high, but those building castles in the air in finance have ordinary staff with annual salaries no lower than 900,000," Zhou Cun agreed.

Lu Shenwei took a sip of water. "The Coast Guard and Fisheries Administration contacted us yesterday. They are coming to inspect the Dragon Shark Unmanned Boat next weekend. Can it be launched the day after tomorrow?"

Zhou Cun thought for a moment. "We will check it twice more, striving to ensure there are no problems when it is launched."

"This is a crucial step for our factory's diversified development, and there must be no mistakes," Lu Shenwei urged.

Zhou Cun nodded heavily. That night, he and all the workers in the dock carefully checked the processes of every link once more.

The next day, they made contingency plans for all foreseeable situations to avoid errors to the greatest extent possible.

Lu Shenwei was still worried, so he called General Manager Jiang of Dalian Shipyard again.

"We lack experience, you see, so we wanted to find two more Experts to help guide us."

Jiang Guoqing teased, "You still need guidance? Five old Experts have already been sent there. The ones left at the shipyard are all their apprentices. It wouldn't be appropriate for apprentices to guide their masters, would it?"

"This... can you just send any two Experts? Listening to only one side leads to ignorance, after all," Lu Shenwei said.

Jiang Guoqing really couldn't refuse him, so he had to agree to let two technical Deputy Chief Engineers from the shipyard go and provide guidance.

"Xiao Lü, Lu Shenwei says the Unmanned Boat is finished. Do you believe it?"

Assistant Xiao Lü frowned. "How long has it been? Less than a year? If it's true, the speed of Director Lu and his team is indeed astonishing."

"It's not astonishing, it's terrifying. If the small boat built by Julong Steel can even float on the water, or even move a couple of times, it would count as a huge success," Jiang Guoqing mused.

Xiao Lü said, "It will definitely be able to float. Don't forget that Professor Wang and the others are all at Julong Steel. I heard that Julong Steel gives them the status of factory director assistants, and the wages are shockingly high."

"Several Senior Engineers in the factory want to leave now; they might be poaching people."

Jiang Guoqing was puzzled. "There's such a thing? Why wasn't I told about this situation?"

"It happened in the last few days; I was just thinking about how to report it to you properly."

After all, they were all old employees of Dalian Shipyard, and it wouldn't look good to fall out with them.

"Don't get involved in this matter. I'll talk to Director Lu personally later," Jiang Guoqing mused.

That afternoon, Jiang Guoqing found the two Deputy Chief Engineers to talk, and both of them readily agreed.

"I've long wanted to go and see Old Wang's new place, but I haven't had the time."

"We won't do anything like showing off before an Expert. We can't say we're going to guide; at most, it counts as learning."

Both of them had participated in the Unmanned Boat R&D work at Dalian Shipyard, but the project eventually stalled due to subsequent funding and profit issues, and they had to withdraw helplessly.

"Go and take a good look. See how Julong Steel, an outsider, managed to make an Unmanned Boat," Jiang Guoqing said half-jokingly.

As a shipbuilding Expert, he naturally wouldn't believe that Lu Shenwei had really built an Unmanned Boat. At most, Julong Steel had encountered technical difficulties and wanted to ask for his advice but was too embarrassed to do so.

That's why they came up with a lame excuse about the Unmanned Boat being finished to invite them over for guidance.

A traditional steel enterprise conquering the construction difficulties of an Unmanned Boat that Dalian Shipyard hadn't figured out in years in less than a year—if that were really the case, he, Jiang Guoqing, could twist his own head off!

That afternoon, before the two Deputy Chief Engineers had even booked their tickets, Zhou Cun had already flown to Dalian Shipyard.

"I'm Zhou Cun from Julong Steel. Our Director arranged for me to come and pick you both up."

(PS: It's been about ten days since I last chatted with you readers. I'd like to report that this book is approaching 500,000 words. Other authors in the same "Industrial Assessment" genre are letting themselves go a bit, but I promised everyone I would update to one million words, so the satisfying points and foreshadowing will still be held back. Otherwise, I really won't be able to control the plot after 800,000 words. We are steadily improving technology, not building Star Destroyers from the start. Thank you all, 3 updates in May, and I'm shamelessly asking for a five-star review again!)